Standup Tour Review: Pumped Up For Kevin Nealon After Philly Show
Last night I went to see Kevin Nealon at Helium in Philly & was pretty pumped up about it. He was one of my favorites during his nine seasons on SNL with characters like ‘Subliminal Man’, ‘Tarzan, Tonto & Frankenstein’, ‘Hans & Franz’ and a correspondent on Weekend Update. He appeared in films I’d endlessly quote like Joe Dirt, Happy Gilmore (“harness – energy – block – bad”) & Grandma’s Boy. More recently he was a degenerate stoner on Weeds & is now on CBS’s Man With A Plan.
So when I heard he was in town & trying out fresh material I scooped up a last-minute ticket. I’ve gone to plenty of comedy shows by myself & they usually squirrel me away in the back where I belong, but this time they put me front & center at a table alone. I felt like I was under an interrogation spotlight & the feeling got worse when my enormous plate of fries arrived. Kate: Potato-party of one. But when Nealon got on stage, I knew nobody was paying attention to me..
All of us normies love to see a celeb up close, and not that I thought he’d be a schlub, but he’s got a towering, energetic presence in person that draws you in. After some Googlin’ I learned he grew up playing rugby & football & in the ’70s he was the starting QB at Fairfield University. He even aspired to be a kicker for the LA Express in the USFL (which only lasted 3 seasons) as a side gig while he pursued comedy.
Nealon’s set was a mixed bag of old & new, story telling, and dad-esque jokes while still keeping an edge. The honestly & self awareness he showed regarding his fame & lifestyle was disarming. He killed with crowd work channeling “Subliminal Man”, delighted with a Philly-oriented ‘Mad Libs’ of sorts, and got howls with his botched pronunciation of ‘Schuylkill”, the river that runs through our city. (Ha! He’s talking about our river! Right here in Philadelphia!)
With the crowd pretty solidly won over, I was almost afraid he’d lose them when he delved into the recent suicide of a beloved celebrity, but he pulled it off. He also managed to find nuggets of genuine humor over the recent death of his father & his worries on being an older dad himself. (He’s 64 & has an 11 year old son.)
Maybe part of it for me was slight fangirling over a comedian I’ve always admired, but I’d say it was an overwhelmingly fantastic set & my face was tired at the end from smiling. Normally a lady laughing by herself at a fry covered table would be a sign of impending madness, but the packed house was right there with me. I’d give his show 4.5 out of 5 of those awful ‘laughing’ emojis because I’m not clever enough to think of another system right now.
You can see his tour dates HERE. Would highly recommend going to see him, but if you can’t you can always check out his web series, Hiking With Kevin Nealon. It’s like Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee but with less pretension & more perspiration.